I'm actually starting to gain interest in this project. After the disastrous clusterfuck that was X-Men Origins: Wolverine, director Darren Aronofsky and writer Christopher McQuarrie have been tasked with somehow getting the character and the project back on track. It's a tall order, but their approach thus far seems solid. In fact, one of the key elements of that approach seems to be "other than having Hugh Jackman, avoid all possible links to the last film and basically pretend it never happened."

It's not a bad idea.

In a recent interview with HitFix, Arronofsky revealed that the name of the film will simply be The Wolverine, and I kind of dig the simplicity of it. There won't be a number attached to it, and in fact they're apparently not treating it as a sequel at all, but rather a one-shot story that's meant to stand on its own. Another very good idea, and not just because the previous film gargled yak balls. This is actually an idea that I wish more superhero movies would pursue. Respect the basic history and chronology of the heroes, but don't necessarily link the films. Just create individual adventures that don't have to have inextricable links to the others. Existentially: follow the James Bond model.

Anyway, according to Slashfilm, the story "will feature Logan in the midst of a romance with a Japanese woman who is married to another man. To win her hand, he must literally battle her samurai-filled family. It's based on the Chris Claremeont/Frank Miller mini-series from 1982." That series, simply titled Wolverine, was a fucking badass series that featured Wolvie taking on The Hand (a clan on ninja assassins) as well as the samurai family of Mariko Yashida, one of his most memorable romantic interests. It's also where the phrase "I'm the best there is at what I do, but what I do best isn't very nice" originated.

There's a fantastic story to be mined from there, and there's a solid team at work on it. Will they create something great out of the festering corpse of Gavin Hood's film (to be fair, much of the blame falls on a poor script and studio meddling)?

Well, it quite literally cannot get worse.

TK Burton is the Editorial Director. You may email him here or follow him on Twitter.